Three's Company
by TryingToFindTime
Summary: As far as Silver is concerned, the only good pokémon is one that can fight. He shows little compassion to any creature too sick or weak for his standards. But when fate gives the redhead another chance to do the right thing, will he? The amount of fluff in this story will suffocate you.


Silver trudged along on the cracked, grimy pavement of the Ecruteak highway, his eyes occasionally glancing to the side to check for oncoming trucks and other vehicles that often pass by. He had been traveling from the Lake of Rage for several days, his goal to make it to Ecruteak and civilization. The young trainer was quite glad to have encountered the highway after trekking in the wilderness for so long, and he had been following its path for nearly an hour and a half in the rain to reach town. He wiped some rainwater away from his forehead, only to become wet again moments later. He grumbled and continued walking, eager to find a Pokémon Center quickly and warm himself.

While traveling, Silver had had quite a bit of time to think. Particularly about the incident at Team Rocket's hideout involving a humiliating defeat by Lance, the so called "Dragon Tamer". However, while the battle itself was embarrassing, it was Lance's advice that had truly wounded his pride. Silver could feel his ego diminish just recalling the Tamer's words…

_"You do not treat your Pokemon with love and compassion." said the taller, elder redhead. He paused thoughtfully before throwing Silver's fallen and panting feraligatr a look of pity. _

_Silver growled, as he was frustrated and confused. "What does that have to do with anything? You only beat me because my pokémon are weak!" _

_Lance looked at the boy sternly. "You are a fool if you think that they are to blame. The only one at fault here is you. You are nothing more than an ignorant trainer!" _

_Silver was furious. "What did you say?" The young redhead clenched his fists, ready to defend his honor. "Try to run that by me again and see what happens!" _

_Lance was not in the least bit intimidated. If anything, the child's incompetence only fueled his disappointment. "There are no weak pokémon, only trainers who berate them and discourage them with threats and violence. You are painfully self-interested and _that_ is why you fail…."_

While the experience itself was an unpleasant one, Silver's loss to the man had forced him to reconsider the notion of compassion. Thinking back, this had not been the first time that Silver was scolded for the way he raised his team. On multiple occasions, the boy had encountered others of the weakling variety, the most notable being his goody-goody-two-shoes rival Lyra. Silver felt nauseous just thinking about her. With her cheery voice, and her bright, friendly smile, the way that she gleefully went about her business…it was enough to make him vomit.

Worse still, despite the numerous times that he had pushed her around, offended and insulted her, she still retained some form of control over herself, and instead of lashing back at him, she chose to forgive him. It was disgusting and confusing at the same time. Yet still, here he found himself entertaining the idea that there might be something to this whole "kindness" thing. Silver sighed to himself, huffing as he felt the dankness of the night air begin to plug him up. He sniffled in response and then tucked his arms closer against his body in an attempt to fend off the cold, but he could still feel his thoughts slowly start to devolve. Soon enough, Silver's main priority was to reach Ecruteak within the half hour, and not worry himself over the opinions of some dimwitted female and her flashy, good-for-nothing friend.

Just then, Silver had noticed something just up ahead of him in the lane nearest to the underbrush. He crept closer, the darkness and the mist from the rain obscuring his vision slightly. As he neared the figure, it slowly began to take shape. Silver cringed when he at last was close enough to realize what it was.

There, lying motionless in the road, was the body of a houndour. Silver could only assume that it had been run over by some careless driver with more important places to be. Silver felt somewhat sick to gaze at the pokémon. Not out of pity, (or lack thereof), but merely because the sight was slightly grotesque. The houndour was an adult, of that much he was certain, and so there was truly no excuse for being run over, right? Silver scoffed at the lifeless pokémon at his feet. "Should have had the sense to watch where you were going, mutt. Serves you right." No response, obviously. But there was something about the deafening silence that made Silver uncomfortable. Was it pity? No, thought Silver, Of course not!

Just as Silver was about to walk past the pathetic sight, a faint rustle of leaves caught his attention. He swiveled his head around to the side of the road and observed the underbrush beside him. A chill shot up his spine when he counted three pairs of luminescent eyes staring back at him. The trainer prepared himself for a wild pokémon battle, his right hand traveling instinctively to his pokéball belt as he watched them carefully.

For a long while nothing happened, until the leaves in the underbrush began to rustle once more. Silver watched as one of the pairs of eyes bobbed up and down, inching towards him ever so slowly. Soon enough, he could distinguish a muzzle and a set of coal-black paws. Another houndour, only this one was much smaller. It eyed Silver curiously, but with a sense of caution, as its siblings crawled through the brush beside him and presented themselves before the trainer.

Silver was not sure what to think. He allowed his right hand to relax, and the houndour pups seemed to relax slightly as well. Silver watched as they attempted to muscle their way through the rain towards their mother, but to no avail. Being baby fire pokémon, their fur was not yet coarse enough to protect them from the basic elements, and they whimpered softly in frustration.

"Weaklings…" Silver muttered to himself.

Nevertheless, he somehow gathered up the moral courage to take off his jacket and place it over the body of the houndour, ignoring the fuss that the little ones were making. Lifting the body off of the ground, he slowly carried it out of the rain and placed it in front of the three orphans. Silver was not sure why he had done this. Perhaps he secretly empathized with the pokémon, having been abandoned by his own father and left to wander. He stopped to wonder if this mother houndour had ever been a better parent then Giovanni had been to him, but he quickly pushed the thought away as painful memories began to resurface.

Removing his jacket from the fallen pokémon, he gave it a good shake or so as to spare himself of any mites or ticks. As he did so, he observed the houndour pups with a melancholy gaze. Warily, the fire types prodded their mother's lifeless form; once or twice they clambered on top of her in an attempt to rouse her. When she did not stir, they whimpered worriedly. For some reason, Silver couldn't bring himself to watch any more of it. As he turned to walk away, the houndour raised their noses to the sky and howled despairingly.

"What do you want from me?" Silver said indignantly, his voice cracking.

Digging into his pack, (all the while avoiding the gazes of the orphaned pokémon), Silver fished out a partially-filled container of pokémon food and ripped off the top. He noticed their mouths begin to water, and the boy scoffed. "Here, take it." Dropping the opened can of chow at his feet, he arose and continued on his way without giving it another thought. Silver had barely noticed the rain begin the slow, the force of the droplets becoming less intense with each passing minute.

The heaviness in Silver's chest had diminished as the lights of Ecruteak city greeted his eyes. The descriptions he had heard of it were fairly accurate. The city was slow at night, and many of the residential areas were filled with older couples. Nearly every building appeared rustic and weathered, but that was to be expected from a city hadn't changed much in a hundred years. The entire layout of the streets oozed with a timeless culture.

Silver was unimpressed with culture.

What he was impressed with was free healthcare and a warm bed for the night, something that only Pokémon Centers provided. Within moments, the boy spotted the familiar logo and hustled towards the entrance of the building. A sigh of relief overtook him as the automatic sliding doors opened, letting a rush of warm air hit his face.

Within a moment Silver had started to realize that something was off. As he made his way towards the front desk, he noticed that nearly every trainer in the Pokémon Center was staring at him. No, not just glancing at him. _Staring_ at him. Silver heard a giggle to his left and he threw his best glare at the source of the noise, a couple of female trainers who were polishing their pokéballs. They piped up and averted their gazes.

But that didn't stop others from throwing an occasional glace at the redhead. Reaching the front desk at last, the nurse happily took his pokéballs and exited to another room. Silver could still feel the eyes of every person looking in his direction, and it wasn't long before the room began to hum with giggles again.

Even the nurse, (who returned a few moments later), seemed to have jumped on the bandwagon, as she stifled a fit of laughter. Taking his pokéballs back from her, he frowned. "And just what's so funny?" he inquired crossly.

The pokémon nurse giggled and replied: "Oh, I'm sorry. I don't mean to embarrass you. It's just so cute to see them follow you around like that! Are they trained?"

"Huh?"

"How old are they? Six weeks?"

Silver raised an eyebrow in irritation. "What are you talking about?"

She pointed a finger behind him, and the boy turned around. He realized quite quickly then what she was talking about, if the train of houndour pups following his every move was any indication.

"What are you runts doing here?" Silver spat at them.

The pups hardly twitched at the sound of his harsh voice. Instead, they blinked their eyes at him and wagged their stumpy tails.

"I already fed you, what more do you want?" Silver swatted at them. "Get lost."

The pokémon were clearly not getting the message. They thought he wanted to play and they lunged playfully at his hand. One even managed to sink its sharp milk teeth into the fabric of Silver's cuff. The boy tried to jerk his sleeve out of the pups' mouth, but to no avail. The other trainers cackled as Silver waged war with the good-natured houndour.

Silver pried the pups' mouth open with his free hand. Taking a room key from the nurse, he stormed into the hallway to look for his designated bed and board, not wanting to endure any more humiliation. He tried to ignore the fact that the houndour were probably still following him. He looked at his room number before determining that it was located upstairs.

As he began to scale the staircase, he halted at the sound of a familiar whine. He looked down to see the three houndour staring at the foot of the stairs, their faces painted with a mixture of perplexity, fear, and sadness.

"Are you _serious_? You can't even climb stairs? Man, you guys are useless."

Silver took this as an opportunity to scramble to his room unbothered. Opening the door to his room, he made his way to the bathroom for a warm shower. Not five minutes afterwards was his soak interrupted by a series of urgent knocks at the door. Silver groaned and hurriedly dried himself, barking at the person outside to cut it out. Once dressed he answered it, only to find himself face to face with his newly acquired fan club, and a very indignant nurse.

_Apparently_ Silver had done something wrong. The nurse insisted that the pups' incessant crying was disturbing the sleep of other guests, among other things Silver didn't care much about. Before he could tell the woman that they weren't even _his_ pokémon, she had shut the door in his face. Looking down at his feet, Silver was again greeted by the now ecstatic faces of the baby houndour. He sighed and rubbed his temples. This is why you can't be nice to anyone; Silver thought to himself, they take advantage of you!

He caught himself yawning, and he scratched his head warily. It had been a long, abnormal day, and all he really wanted now was to go to sleep. He made his way to the bed, the houndour trotting at his heels. As Silver climbed into the covers, the pups attempted to follow him onto the bed. Unsuccessful in their endeavor, they began to whine and whimper.

"Not this again…Look, I'm not going anywhere, alright? I'm right here! So just shut your yaps already!"

This did not console them, however, and they continued to paw at the covers. Disgruntled, Silver reached for the light of the lamp and switched it off, hoping that they would eventually fall asleep. He clenched a nearby pillow in his hands and covered his head with it as the grievances kept him awake.

This was going to be a long night.

* * *

I finally finished this. ;_;

So, this is basically…a thing. Yep, that sums it up pretty well. I'm writing a few independent stories, and I had the idea to write something based on my experiences with owning a dog. But I also had OTP feels going on at the same time and well… this.

I intend for this to be a three-parter, with each one more fluffy than that next. The parade of fluff is always marching on!

As always, any feedback is good feedback, and I hope you enjoyed!


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